Heart Attack Drug May Do More Cardiac Damage
by Allan Dizon in Fitness on Jun 12, 2011
A new study finds that people who are given a drug known as erythropoietin alfa after a heart attack may experience new heart problems and even greater cardiac damage from the attack.
Erythropoietin alfa is a drug which works stimulating red blood cells. Researchers explained, “It has been used in some patients who had heart attacks because certain studies suggested it might reduce the extent of heart attack damage and improve heart function.”
Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, the chief of cardiology at the VA Boston Healthcare System, and was not involved in the study said, “This study shows that erythropoietin should only be used with caution in patients with recent heart attacks.” He further added, “There are hints in this study that the use of erythropoietin might have adverse cardiac effects. This does not mean the drug doesn’t have its place, for example, to help reduce transfusions in people with low blood counts.”
This drug includes Procrit and Epogen which are typically used in treating anemia to cancer patients and to lower the risk of transfusions.
For the study, the researchers had 222 patients diagnosed with heart attacks in multiple centers across the nation and were randomly assigned to receive the drug (erythropoietin alfa) or a placebo after they undergo a balloon angioplasty or stent placement to open the blocked heart vessels.
The researchers wanted to know if the drug has a protective effect on the patient since most of them had suffered the most critical type of heart attack – STEMI. The patients were divided—one group took the drug and the other took placebo.
They found out that the size of the damaged area of the heart remained the same after each scan on both groups. However, for those patients who were aged 70 years and older with the drug, the heart damage increased over the first week of treatment. Moreover, five patients who had the drug, either died, had another heart attack or had a blockage in the stent during the angioplasty. On the contrary, those who had placebo did not encounter such problems.
Dr. Gregg Fonarow, the associate chief of cardiology at UCLA commented, “There has been substantial interest in the development of cardioprotective agents which could be administered during acute myocardial infarction or heart attack.”
Related Posts:
